'Because things don’t appear to be the known thing; they aren’t what they seemed to be neither will they become what they might appear to become.'
Posted by Tessa den Uyl and Martin Cohen
A postcard from Taroudant, Maroc
The woman seated in front of the painting is possibly homeless. Her posture dissolves with the two figures on the wall, characterised by their carved-out eyes, and urge us to imagine where this woman can put her gaze.
Eyes and hearts, their combination invites a myriad of symbolic attributions. One of them is that a woman with her eyes can reach the man in his heart. The carved-out eyes suggest that women, even when veiled, still look (and distract), which they should not... Or is the image saying something quite different, that the time for women to be veiled is consigned to history and that these days we can 'forget about the eyes’?
An eye is connected with light, and light with reflection. The ‘seduction’ begins with the question of where the reflection should pose its attention.
Seeing is knowing and judging. A knowing, judging woman is perhaps not wanted, by the chiseller. Yet in the very act of carving the eyes out, he (or she) highlights their knowing and judging.
ReplyDeleteThank you Thomas. With or without ‘eyes’ most relations are based on judgement. Not only in Islam, judgment should serve justice. This makes me think that it’s the presupposition of correct laws where ambivalence reflects human thought. And justice can only defend itself. The exclusion it makes, is not perceived as judgement, but correctness. The reflection should be focused to this latter idea.
ReplyDeleteI'm puzzled as to what sort of a 'postcard' this was? Was the photograph supposed to be a critique? Or were the photographer and card manufacturer) oblivious.
ReplyDeleteTo me the image is unsettling... grotesque even.
All suggestion, expression, distraction, judgement, reflection starts with the brain. The eyes merely do its bidding.
ReplyDeleteThat is curious Martin, why grotesque?
ReplyDeleteYes, why making a postcard with this image? On the other hand, why making a postcard with dromedaries in the desert? It tells about a country I guess? This is not the only painting like this, at-least there is another one in Casablanca. Only women are seated in front. This makes me think, but might be wrong, that the image is connected with women who have been violated and lost their home.
It's the eyes gouged out... that's what I found grotesque, Tessa. If it were a campaigning card, well, yes that would make a kind of sense! But why do you think it might be? It seems a very oblique way to make a point too. Only serious folk at Pi would ever 'get it'!
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